Chapter 94
"It is a thunderbolt without storm clouds,
The roar of a beast rending the pure atmosphere."
— Excerpt from an unidentified ancient document, Zahad section
For an instant, the world lost its color.
A pure whiteout engulfed the arena.
The audience, who instinctively closed their eyes, were unprepared for the thunderclap that followed.
Kwa-roooom—!
Those who belatedly covered their ears found themselves assaulted by a booming explosion, accompanied by an electric charge in the air.
The force brushing against their skin made the fine hairs on their bodies stand on end.
The sensation was nothing short of chilling.
While their sight and hearing were paralyzed, a tingling tremor crawled over them, an experience that would be forever seared into their memories.
As a faint ringing echoed in their ears, the audience, having briefly tasted blindness, opened their eyes at different paces.
"Ah."
And then they saw it.
Two bolts of lightning clashing against the sky that had been turned upside down by the battlefield.
Jin threw a punch.
A straight jab packed with thunderous force, compressed with all the might of a grandmother stuffing rice cakes—unyielding and potent.
The air trembled violently along the trajectory of his strike.
Kendrick did not dodge.
With violet eyes flashing, he extended his own electrified palm, catching Jin's fist mid-flight.
Kwaang!
The wildest grains of rice had been caught.
Now it was time to switch offense and defense.
Puh-woong!
As if to say "my turn now," Kendrick launched a punch.
Jin took it head-on—with his forehead.
And with his free hand, he drove a liver shot into Kendrick's side.
Kendrick's brow twitched slightly, but Jin's eyes rolled upward as if possessed.
A trade where he took more damage than he dealt—but it didn't matter.
He had a playstyle where his stamina bar refilled a little faster.
Jin's eyes snapped open.
If this were a comic, the perfect sound effect would be gleam!
And with his gleaming eyes, Jin realized two things.
First—
He was currently diving headfirst toward the ground, the classic posture of someone about to be knocked out.
Second—five bolts of lightning were streaking toward his falling body.
Third—shit!
With this unplanned third realization, Jin channeled all his strength into his soles.
Boom!
His back was nearly touching the ground.
A clean dodge was impossible.
So instead, like a rocket launching horizontally, he scraped across the floor in a cloud of dust.
The five bolts of lightning struck the spot where he had been moments ago.
The ground was instantly shattered, fragments shooting upward.
Beyond the debris, Kendrick stood with fingers curled like a predator's claws.
It wasn't hard to deduce that those five bolts had originated from his fingertips.
And Jin knew what it was.
A technique with the grandiose name "Claws of the Thunderbird."
He himself had sealed it away from practical use because it felt too much like an Inuyasha knockoff—just another bit of knowledge rattling around in his head.
Gotta admit, it looks cooler than I thought.
Jin spotted Kendrick approaching.
The electric energy, shaped like claws, surged in reverse, extending up to his shoulders in great arcs.
His bangs, pushed back by his own voltage, fluttered slightly.
Jin, rising with only his core strength, clenched his fists.
He spread his lead and rear hands shoulder-width apart, lightly bouncing off the ground.
The rhythm he tapped out with his toes began syncing with the beat of his own heartbeat.
Feeling the weighty pulse that only he could hear, Jin smirked.
"You're not called the Young Tunder King for nothing."
"What, did you think I got the title for free?"
Jin had meant it as a compliment, but Kendrick's response was sharp-edged.
Still, Jin found it oddly amusing.
Damn, this guy's picky.
He doesn't seem like a bad person, so why's he so damn tense?
I just don't get it.
And of course, he wouldn't.
Jin had no idea what kind of emotions Kendrick harbored toward him.
Twenty lost years rest on your shoulders.
You must become the rightful heir to the coronation, someone all will recognize and accept.
You can do it.
No—you must.
Do not settle.
Do not rest.
Do not allow yourself to be compared.
Become so perfect that no one can even dream of chasing you.
The voice of his father echoed whenever he closed his eyes.
His grandfather never once looked directly at him.
In the old man's vacant gaze, there was only the distant silhouette of his uncle.
Even in death, the giant's shadow still loomed over their family, suffocating them all.
A child raised beneath that weight had grown into a young genius, starved for recognition.
But few knew this.
Even Kendrick himself was unaware of it.
Kendrick spoke.
"I am the one who will carry the legacy. Everything I've done was for this moment."
"Who said otherwise?"
The next instant—
Both men launched themselves from the ground.
As the thunderous boom rang out, the audience's hair stood on end.
Thunder crashed.
Violent currents of air slammed into faces.
The entire arena trembled.
And suddenly, the spectators understood—
This was more than just a battle between a direct heir and a branch family member.
This was not something to be treated as mere entertainment.
This was history unfolding before their eyes.
Are we witnessing a clash that should have been saved for the finals?
Just as the thought dawned on them, their jaws dropped.
Flash!
Beyond the flickering light, Kendrick and Jin landed—on opposite sides.
In the blink of an eye, something had changed.
Ptuh.
Jin spat out a broken tooth, blood splattering the ground.
Kendrick pressed a hand to his tattered side.
The two had exchanged dozens of blows in an instant.
They locked eyes once more.
Kendrick was the first to speak.
"I have no choice but to acknowledge you. No wonder that man took an interest in you."
He straightened his posture, and in that moment, the lightning around him dissipated.
"I was saving this for Ryucard... but I guess I have no choice."
At the same time, a violet aura spread outward like rippling waves.
Jin narrowed his eyes.
Not good.
Everything—the ominous line he'd just spoken, the unsettling flow of mana—
It all pointed to a trump card being revealed.
And worst of all, Jin had no idea what Kendrick was about to do.
No indication.
No precedent.
An entirely unknown technique.
For the first time in this fight, Kendrick had outpaced him in understanding.
Jin did not stand idly by.
He launched himself forward in a blink.
Dropping from above, he raised his heel and drove it down.
The movement was sharp, honed by countless battles.
Kwaang!!
Kendrick crossed his arms in an X to block.
Behind that stable defense, his eyes blazed.
Their gazes met for a fleeting moment—
Then Kendrick spun counterclockwise in a grand arc.
Whoooosh—!
The once-gentle waves of mana suddenly spiraled inward, swirling around Kendrick in a violent vortex.
Arena debris was caught in the flow, sucked toward the center, disintegrating like grains of sand.
Is this a whirlpool?
No… a typhoon?
Alarm bells rang in Jin's head.
He didn't know what this was.
But his instincts screamed—if you get caught, it's over.
Recognizing the nature of the technique, Jin didn't need to think about his next move.
His body simply reacted, following the compass of his instincts.
With a thud, his right foot struck the ground—spinning him into motion.
To the eyes of onlookers, it must have seemed as if Kendrick and Jin had spun in opposite directions simultaneously.
Chwaaaak!
He defied the flow his opponent had intended.
The pulling force was immense, but he gritted his teeth and endured it.
The moment he swung his fist, believing that being dragged along would mean the end, it completed half a turn in midair and collided with Kendrick's elbow.
His arm bounced upward over his head.
The aftermath of the impact robbed him of sensation in his hand.
He couldn't even be sure if he was still clenching his fist.
But he did not stop.
Thud!
His back foot, which had been pushed back, stomped forward with all its might as he spun again.
Another clash followed.
The sound of flesh colliding echoed like an explosion.
A dull, hammer-like impact sent his body reeling backward.
Now, his right arm had lost feeling up to the forearm, yet he controlled it by sheer instinct, stomping his foot down.
Kwaang!
Their crossing fists slammed into each other.
But Kendrick was faster.
Jin's head snapped back as blood arced from his face.
Meanwhile, his own punch struck nothing but empty air.
It was inevitable.
Unlike Kendrick, who dictated the flow as the eye of the storm, Jin had to fight against it.
Before he could even feel resentment, he spun again.
The next moment, Kendrick's spinning kick landed against his temple.
Jin barely managed to raise his forearm in time to block it, then immediately swung at Kendrick's side from close range.
The impact felt weak.
Since childhood, Kendrick had fortified his body with all sorts of elixirs.
His body was as solid as Jin's own, and he possessed the same reckless tenacity that allowed him to shrug off ordinary attacks.
Kwarung!!
Amidst the downpour of a sudden thunderstorm, Jin coughed up a mouthful of blood.
It was the price of being fully exposed to a relentless barrage—forehead, jaw, nasal bone, ribs, solar plexus.
The blow to the forehead was especially severe.
His fractured orbital bone swelled instantly, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
Swaying—his body, which had held out stubbornly, was finally about to be swept into the counterclockwise flow.
Bbuduk!
The sound of his molars cracking rang in his skull as he forcefully twisted his body in the opposite direction.
It's not over yet!
Flames blazed fiercely in his blood-spattered eyes.
Fighting spirit is like fire.
It doesn't die out easily until it has burned everything.
That is why it is so intense.
And why it is so dangerous.
At this moment, the sight of Jin pressing forward toward Kendrick looked precarious—yet dazzling.
Kwaang!
His bones rattled from another impact, the countless collisions blurring into one.
His body, pushed to its limit, screamed in agony, but he swallowed the pain along with his breath.
His willpower was almost eerie in its strength.
By all logic, he should have collapsed already.
But it wasn't because of some grand reason.
Jin simply didn't know how to break.
If he shattered, he would piece himself back together.
If he was wrecked, he would rebuild himself.
That was how he had lived until now.
And that was how he would continue to live.
So now—
He erased everything else from his mind except Kendrick.
From this point on, only the two of them existed in the world.
At some point, the only thought remaining in his head was winning.
How long had he endured the storm of attacks?
He found it.
Jin's eyes sharpened.
His heightened combat intuition, honed further by the ongoing battle, had finally uncovered a gap in the tempest.
The answer lay in Kendrick's movements.
His hands, elbows, knees, and feet—specific points in his rotation created the flow.
He had masked the pattern with a relentless storm of attacks, but now it was exposed.
Kwaang!
The moment their fists collided, Jin twisted his waist with all his might.
His arm, which had seemed to recoil powerlessly, instead traced a broad arc and struck a precise point in the vortex.
He had been watching for this moment—the spot where Kendrick's hand should have passed.
"Uwaaaah!!"
His next punch tore through the storm like paper.
Beyond the sundered winds, sunlight poured through.
"······!"
For the first time—
Kendrick staggered backward.
His balance faltered, his body stumbling.
A shadow fell over his face, marred with frustration.
And there, standing with the sun at his back, Jin had already closed the distance, raising his fist.
Eight refracted rays of light glimmered at the tip of his knuckles.
Kendrick, scowling, threw his own punch as he swallowed back the blood surging up his throat.
Puhk-
A perfectly timed impact.
Like a picture-perfect cross-counter, both bodies collapsed to the ground at the same time.
A heavy silence settled over the arena.
The audience, having forgotten how to breathe, merely etched the sight of the two fallen fighters into their minds.
Among them were Ryucard and Carlos—men who rarely paid attention to other people's matches.
But that wasn't the end.
A woman with obsidian eyes watched the battlefield, her face filled with indescribable ecstasy.
"Aaah······"
Her breath trembled with exhilaration as the dazed announcer hastily began the count.
"10! 9! 8!"
Then, a hand twitched.
It was Kendrick.
"Haa, haa—"
Like a newborn foal, his legs had completely given out, but he dragged himself up with sheer force of will.
The count continued, muffled as if underwater.
"7! 6! 5!"
I have to stand!
If I fall here, Father will be disappointed.
Grandfather will turn his back on me.
My uncle's shadow will only grow darker.
"Guh!"
He coughed up a thick clot of blackened blood, his fists pounding his unresponsive legs.
I have to stand, I have to stand!
Yet, despite his desperate will, his half-raised body slipped in the blood and crumpled again.
It must have been a pathetic sight.
But Kendrick had no time to feel ashamed.
Because before he realized it, the patriarch was standing before him.
"···G-Grandfather?"
There was no response.
The gaze that had been staring down at him indifferently slowly turned away, moving further beyond his reach.
As the patriarch's back faced him, Kendrick's expression crumbled in despair.
Step.
Someone staggered forward, scattering the illusion.
Against the sunlight, a face beamed down at him.
"That was fun."
Jin, his swollen face smiling, stretched out his hand.
For a moment, Kendrick could only stare blankly at the hand offered to him.
Then, unconsciously, he reached out.
"Hup!"
Jin pulled Kendrick forward, tucking his head under Kendrick's arm and straightening his back.
"Ah."
At the eye level of the victor, Kendrick let out a small gasp.
And in that moment—
The audience, who had been holding their breath, erupted into cheers.
Louder than any thunderclap.